Elk Grove News Minute - City Attorney Hobbs flubs Elk Grove City Council meeting
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2018/10/city-attorney-elk-grove-flub-up.html
October 13, 2018 |
At the Wednesday, October 10, 2018 meeting of the Elk Grove City Council, according to one speaker, Mayor Steve flubbed-up bigly. Ly's flub was to give one male speaker an unusually long public comment.
As pointed out in the meeting, this was not the first time the mayor showed deference to male speakers while being dismissive of women. Along with Ly's flub, City Attorney Jonathan Hobbs got in on the evening's flob-athon as well.
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Hobbs has five "clients", the City Council. His job is to essentially protect them from being sued. The track record on that one might be a little spotty, but nevertheless, that is his bottom line task. So as people approach the podium to speak, his mind is calculating the probability of being sued at any given moment.
I'm not sure the three minute rule breaking is a man/woman issue, but rather a big/little or important/unimportant issue.
If the speaker is a 'little' person with no apparent firepower to sue, say a Lynn Wheat or Michael Monasky, well then three minutes is all they get. If you add into the mix, a topic that is viewed by his clients as unimportant, such as cell phone tower radiation, well it's a slam dunk you are given the polite sit down notice after three minutes.
Conversely, if your client has the firepower and the intent to sue, Hobbs will go into red alert and his legal mind will shift into warp drive. Case in point: the city attempted to extend its marijuana moratorium, even after the new state law went into effect. Hobbs and his five clients were threatened with a lawsuit by a statewide pro-cannabis lobby, and the city stopped dead in its tracks.
When a real estate developer or crime prevention advocate is speaking, especially during election season, the three minute rule will stretch like a bungee cord. When Lynn Wheat approaches the podium and removes her chunk of asphalt meteorite from its paper bag, well you can bet she is done in three minutes.
It's not a man/woman issue. It's an important/unimportant issue and are they big or little.
Elk Grove City Attorney Jonathan Hobbs seems to have forgotten that his only client is the city of Elk Grove, not individual council members. Hobbs’ sole interest, and that of the entire City Attorney’s office, is to act in the best interests of the city, not a particular council majority.
That doesn’t appear to be occurring at either city council meetings and/or planning commission meetings. Who sets the tone here for all the attorneys in the city attorney’s office? Answer: Jonathan Hobbs.
It seems to me by this current EGN minute, and several others in the past few months, Hobbs appears to be afraid to click on his microphone at council meetings and simply do his job, protect the city along with doing the council members a favor, protecting them from their quasi-illegal and/or outright illegal behavior such as violation of The Brown Act.
Maybe since the firing of former City Manager Laura Gill, those three votes to fire loom large and Hobbs is taking the “go along to get along” attitude and keeping silent when he should, in fact, speak up.
By doing so, Hobbs is not only doing himself a great disservice because his creditability will no doubt suffer; but moreover, so will the city he is supposed to serve.
With this current EGN minute and several other examples of late, it begs the question to Jonathan Hobbs: Do you understand that your job is to make sure the city of Elk Grove and the Elk Grove City Council know the laws and you must do your best to keep the city out of trouble?
Has Jonathan Hobbs lost sight of those objectives?
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